


Keeping Cool

by HardNoctLife



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Fun, Gen, Hot, Hot Weather, One Shot, Summer, Swimming Pools, fun in the sun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22543435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HardNoctLife/pseuds/HardNoctLife
Summary: It's hotter than Ifrit's Hellfire, so when the bros stop at a gas station, Noctis and Prompto come up with a plan to cool off.
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia & Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum & Ignis Scientia
Comments: 14
Kudos: 61





	Keeping Cool

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MysteriousBean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteriousBean/gifts).



> For MysteriousBean, who requested the chocobros in bathing suits and kiddie pools.

Nothing stirred, not even the air. The hot, Leiden sun, oppressive as it was, beat down like a hammer, violent and unforgiving on their skin.

Prompto and Noctis sat sprawled in opposite corners of the Regalia’s backseat, trying to keep their arms and legs from touching to avoid sticking together as Ignis pumped gas. They had stripped down to only the essentials after stopping for breakfast, ignoring Gladio’s jeering taunts.

"Look at those puny muscles!"

"Shut up, Gladio," Noctis had grumbled.

The leather was scorching beneath their legs, and they had to keep moving to avoid getting burned from underneath as well as above.

Prompto was too miserable to even talk—a first for him—and when Noctis glanced over, he could see blistering red across the bridge of his nose and cheeks. It had only been a day since the air conditioning had stopped working without warning, but in a matter of hours they had squeezed out every drop of available sweat in their bodies.

Now, dehydrated and miserable, they prayed for any kind of relief, but there wasn’t a single cloud in sight, and the temperature was steadily rising.

“It’s _hot_ ,” Noctis groaned for the millionth time, and Ignis didn’t comment as he wiped a sheen of sweat from his forehead with a rolled shirtsleeve.

Prompto flopped his head against the headrest with a pathetic moan, wordlessly agreeing.

Gladio was the only one who didn’t look uncomfortable, flipping a page of his novel from where he reclined in the front of the car, he was shirtless as usual, showing off his naturally browned skin.

“Iggy, can we _please_ stop,” Prompto whined, laying the desperation on thick in the hopes that Ignis would take pity on them.

With a delicate frown marring his features, Ignis glanced down at the watch on his wrist, squinting through the glare on its face.

“We’ve only been on the road an hour since we ate. If we stop now, we won’t reach our destination by nightfall.”

“ _Please_ —Iggy, I’m literally _melting_.”

“Quit your bitchin’,” Gladio grunted, finally looking up from his novel. He cast a threatening look over his shoulder, which Noctis met with a glare of his own.

The tension only added to the unbearable heat, and Ignis’s frown grew more severe.

“Out of the car, all of you,” the advisor huffed. “Find yourselves something to cool off with. After that, we’re _leaving_.” Ignis’s tone left no room for negotiation, but it didn’t keep Prompto and Noctis from complaining—loudly—as they did as they were told.

“Hottest day on the planet, no AC in the car, and Ignis _still_ wants to drive,” Noctis griped as he shoved the door to the convenience store open.

The shopkeeper, an elderly man with a red ballcap, lifted his head from where he sat behind the counter, giving a thin smile.

“What can I do ya for, boys?”

“Something cold— _anything_ cold,” Prompto said with a croak. His throat was dryer than the countryside they currently found themselves surrounded by, and it was painful to swallow.

“Sorry to say, but our freezer busted so we’re fresh out of ice cream,” Prompto and Noctis exchanged a horrified look, because _of course_ , that would be their luck, “—but we do got some summer stuff in that aisle over yonder.” He gestured, pointing to the last aisle in the back corner of the store.

“Thanks,” Noctis muttered.

Noctis started heading that way, Prompto close behind, and they quickly found what the man was referring to.

Prompto grinned as he turned to Noctis, pleased to find him mirroring his expression, their eyes full of childlike glee.

“ _Dude!”_

“Jackpot!” Noctis agreed. They started grabbing the items off the shelf, returning to the counter once their arms were full.

“All of this, please,” Prompto announced as Noctis poured a pocketful of gil onto the counter.

Ignis would undoubtedly disapprove of their spontaneous purchases, but he had never specified a spending limit, just that they should buy something to help them ‘cool off,’ and that’s exactly what they were doing.

“Man, this is going to be _awesome_.”

“I can’t wait to see the look on their faces,” Prompto laughed.

With the items paid for, Noctis and Prompto hurried out of the convenience store with renewed energy, snickering amongst themselves.

* * *

Ignis sat in the driver’s seat, drumming his fingers across the steering wheel. He glanced down at his watch, up, then down again, exhaling audibly.

Gladio, who had avoided asking the question the first three times Ignis had performed the ritual, asked it now, voicing what they both were wondering.

“Where the hell _are_ they?”

Ignis finally allowed his irritation to be heard. “It’s been twenty minutes.” His lips were pursed, expression sour. He was the most patient man Gladio knew, but even he had his limits, and Noctis didn’t know when to stop pushing them.

“I’ll go look,” Gladio reluctantly offered, opening the Regalia’s door.

The last thing they needed was for Ignis to get angry when they were all already on edge. Gladio would rather drive a thousand days in the heat of summer with no air conditioning than one with an infuriated Ignis.

Gladio went into the convenience store and scoured every aisle as if he wasn’t tall enough to see over them, eyebrows pulling closer together the longer he searched without finding what he was looking for. He even checked the bathroom—nothing.

“You lookin’ for your friends there, sonny?”

“Yeah,” Gladio grunted in response to the shopkeeper’s question. He left off the ‘although they won’t be my friends once I find them’ part of the sentence.

“I reckon they went ‘round back.” He jerked a thumb in one direction, which created more questions than answers, but Gladio figured he had wasted enough time already.

With a muttered ‘thanks,’ he headed back outside, the hot air smacking him in the face as he opened the door, circled around the back of the building, and stopped abruptly upon turning the corner.

“What the—?”

His anger dissipated into surprised laughter.

“Heya Gladio, join the party!” Prompto beckoned, wiggling his eyebrows from behind a pair of ridiculous sunglasses. The frames were in the shape of cactuars, lenses reflecting a rainbow in the sun.

Gladio placed his hands on his hips, taking in the scene with a shake of his head. Prompto and Noctis were lounging in an inflatable chocobo kiddie-pool, bottles of soda in hand with umbrellas sticking out of them like what you’d get in a fancy cocktail at Galdin Quay.

The two looked incredibly pleased with themselves, sunscreen slathered sloppily across their faces.

“Where the hell did you guys get a pool?”

Gladio wandered over, seeing that there was another one behind them, this one a moogle instead of a chocobo.

“From the store! Come on in, the water’s great.” As if to tempt him, Noctis flicked several droplets at Gladio, watching as the rivulets slid down Gladio’s washboard abs.

Gladio arched a single eyebrow in response.

“Ignis is going to kill both of you. And I have the mind to let him.”

“Well, then we might as well enjoy ourselves before we die,” Prompto commented. He sank back down into the water, humming happily as he adjusted the floppy sunhat shielding his pink-tinged face.

Noctis’s head was still tilted up at Gladio, giving him those princely puppy eyes from behind his Tonberry shades.

Shaking his head, Gladio turned his back to them, stalking away.

“Boooo,” Prompto called, hands cupped around his mouth. Before he finished his taunt, Gladio turned abruptly, and taking several quick steps, vaulted over the two. Prompto and Noctis screamed in comedic harmony as Gladio cleared them in one giant leap.

“Cannonball!” he shouted, landing in the moogle pool with a splash that had them all laughing hysterically.

Throwing a first up in victory, Prompto let loose an excited yell. “Woohoo!”

Gladio and Noctis didn’t echo his sentiment though, horrified faces pointing in the direction of the space over Prompto’s shoulder. Slowly, he turned, wincing when he Ignis standing there behind them.

He surveyed them with his arms folded in disapproval across his chest, wide-stanced and stone-faced.

“Iggy—”

“What part of ‘after that we’re leaving’ did you not understand?” his tone was teetering precariously between exasperation and annoyance, and before Prompto or Noctis could tip the scale unfavorably, Gladio got to his feet.

“Sorry, Specs. We were just cooling off.”

Prompto gave Gladio a betrayed look, and he winked back. Ignis was too busy being the responsible one to notice how Gladio’s slow steps could be interpreted as predatory. While his eyes were on Noctis, Prompto watched Gladio with barely concealed glee. 

When Ignis opened his mouth, no doubt intending to scold them some more, Gladio seized his moment of opportunity. Scooping Ignis into his arms amidst two hearty cheers and one scathing curse that no one would dare repeat, he dropped the advisor into the moogle pool with one smooth movement, clothes and all.

There was sputtering, which muffled more cursing, and then a sigh of defeat as Gladio settled in beside Ignis.

It was quiet for several long seconds, everyone staring at Ignis with bated breath.

Ignis removed his glasses, wiping them with his now soaked button-down. It made his glare a lot less intimidating, but they knew better than to laugh. Another long moment passed.They could almost hear the wheels in Ignis’s mind turning.

“One hour,” he said.

Prompto was already grinning.

“ _One_ , do you hear me?” Ignis reiterated. 

Noctis held out his glass bottle of soda, and his best friend and accomplice clinked his own against it. Gladio hooked his muscled legs over the sides of the pool, scooting over a little to give Ignis room. He watched with a satisfied smirk as Ignis began to unbutton his shirt.

“Incorrigible, all of you,” he complained, but his tone was more jovial now, and they knew they had won.

“Just pretend we’re on the beach in Galdin,” Noctis suggested, passing over a chilled Ebony from where they had hidden it, a sign that this had been their plan all along.

Ignis watched the condensation roll down the can as he popped the tab, allowing his body to slump against Gladio’s as he closed his eyes.

The sun felt much more pleasant on his face now, and he took a long swallow of the iced coffee, unwilling to admit that he was more than a little pleased.

* * *

“What happened to ‘one hour,’ huh?” Gladio chuckled softly, glancing over to where Noctis and Prompto had fallen asleep in their kiddie pool, mouths hanging open and their heads pressed together.

_Not a care in the world._

“They’ll regret it when they wake up with sunburns. That is punishment enough.” Ignis was flipping through a magazine, more comfortable now that he had changed into swim trunks and had an umbrella shading him.

They weren’t in a hurry—not anymore.


End file.
